


Sweet Admiration

by Hotalando



Series: Core [11]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Character Development, Gen, Nakamaship, Sweet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-11
Updated: 2017-12-11
Packaged: 2019-02-13 10:07:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12981750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hotalando/pseuds/Hotalando
Summary: Anyone was allowed to have weak spots, why shouldn't she?





	Sweet Admiration

Being her had never been a good condition for existing. How many times in her awful past had she been forced to realize it—she never intended to count. Rational actions, rational thinking, rational feeling, her entire self had been reduced to the most necessary of personality. It had worked; never to be more than her dream and let everything else be the world’s subjective interpretation.

Over the last two and a half years she had been able to learn to be her very own personality, some luxury no one had ever provided for her before. Now she was able to design herself to her dearest imaginations, be whatever she believed suited her the most. Though, with characteristics she had grown quite attached to, she found herself nearly finished as a person once they had set sail off of Water Seven. 

If asked, she would say how most of the facettes that made her complete were no surprise to her. Despite the necessity of masking her true interests—as long as they wouldn’t contribute to the situation—she had developed some of them throughout her life. There were passions within her, muted since childhood, slowly awakening from their decades of coma. And antics, she couldn’t recall ever noticing in her own behavior. 

When one day she had been kneeling next to Chopper in assistance of his preparation of herbs, letting her disembodied hands blossoming all around them but also using her very own, and some crewmember had proposed a commentary at the sight. How she would sit next to the site of action and participate with direct contact in a task, when with any other crewmember she would let her limbs sprout from a comfortable distance so she wouldn’t have to stop lazing about. How that would be an _adorable_ proof of her affection towards the ship doctor.  
Needless to say, the commentator had been gifted with enough reason to regret their words. 

The incident back then had had its impact on her impression of herself and how she acted around certain crewmates. Why, yes, Nami would occasionally mention to her how spoiling Chopper wasn’t necessary—but spoiling? In her ears a word of harsh meaning. To her, after all, mattered only the intellectual exchange with the doctor and the gain of new perspectives on various theories since the younger crew mate’s spectrum of interests was as broad as the Grand Line wide. Discussing and plotting of mysteries and riddles of the past and present of even those fields the farthest away from their professions was the kind of diet her inquisitive mind needed. 

And what an adorable imagery he always provided her.  
The way he was carrying the last tray back to its place in the medical cabinet, in his tailored and perfectly fitting white coat draped over his casual outfit of the day—a plain dark green shirt with matching dark blue pants. His voice, rough from exhaustion, the only sound in the infirmary that reached her ears however not her mind. 

“Anyway, thank you for helping with the cleaning! I shouldn’t allow three of them at once into the infirmary from now on,” Chopper sighed, some annoyance lingering in his tone as he remembered how troublesome it had been to patch up two injured people with an amused captain still laughing in the doorway. If at least Nami hadn’t demanded to be treated before the worse injured Usopp, only because she had been the unwanted victim in the boys’ unsuccessful prank, maybe there would have been less to clean up after.

“You’re always a great help, Robin,” Chopper smiled at her genuinely, but found her a little spaced out staring at him. Tilting his head in a mild confusion, he asked at a fuller volume, “Are you alright?”

Now how his a little sweat damped fur covered forehead performed a soft frown… “I am,” Robin hastily replied, “I wonder whom the prank originally was planned for.” 

“Well…” Chopper took off his coat and neatly hung it up on its designated hook at the wall, “I know they were planning on messing with Zoro a little after his unfair victory in their wood chopping contest the other day.” 

Robin chuckled at the younger mate rolling his eyes. “They should’ve set up rules first, it was obvious Zoro would use his swords and not an axe.”

“My words! But well, at least they were having fun,” Chopper laughed, “I really love it when it gets this lively on the ship. As much as the peace and quiet sometimes.”

A content smile softened the features of his face that was masked under the transparent sentimentality they both at times would feel. Robin could read herself in his expression, the positive and negative emotions knitted into the complex yet easy relationship with the crewmembers of the Strawhat Pirates. The melancholy, wrapping around her whenever the feelings of what-could-have-been and what-would-be tinged her soul in a ghastly shade of her natural color. She knew, by one look into his eyes, by one sound of his voice, because her feelings were the same.  
It was this level of understanding, of mutuality, that drew her to him. And what was wrong, when his personality also offered the sweetest visual demonstration?  
After all, she _could_ allow herself this kind of admiration to be one of her antics.


End file.
